1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel adjuvant composition for agricultural chemicals, a method for enhancing the efficacies of agricultural chemicals which comprises using said composition together with an agricultural chemical, a use of said composition for enhancing the efficacies of agricultural chemicals and a novel agricultural chemical composition.
2. Description of the Related Art
Agricultural chemicals including insecticides, fungicides (or bactericides), herbicides, miticides (or acaricides) and plant growth regulators have been used in the forms of, for example, emulsions, wettable powders, granules, dusts and flowables. In the properties of these agricultural chemical preparations, various attempts have been made to achieve the maximum efficacy of the agricultural chemical. However, it has been difficult to enhance the efficacies of agricultural chemicals through adjustments in formulations. It is further difficult to develop novel agricultural chemicals. Therefore, further enhancement of the efficacies of existing agricultural chemicals would highly contribute to the industry.
As substances capable of enhancing the efficacies of agricultural chemicals, surfactants comprising various nitrogen-containing compounds such as quaternary ammonium salts, betaines and amine oxides have been known. It is known that quaternized or further polyoxyethylenated long-chain amines, among the above-mentioned compounds, are effective for this purpose. However, the effects of the above-described surfactants comprising the nitrogen-containing compound capable of enhancing the efficacies of agricultural chemicals are not always satisfactory.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Publication-B No. 62-43968 (published on Sep. 17, 1987) and Japanese Patent Publication-A No. 6-145003 (published on May 24, 1994) disclose the use of a sorbitan/fatty acid ester as an ingredient of an agrohorticultural pest control composition and the use of a polyoxyalkylene/resin acid ester as an ingredient of an adjuvant for an agrohorticultural biocide, respectively. However, one of the sorbitan/fatty acid ester and the polyoxyalkylene/resin acid ester exhibits an insufficient effect for enhancing the efficacies of agricultural chemicals.